Zero Hour: An Explosive YA Vampire Thriller of Survival and Dark Secrets (Department 19) (Book 4)

I'm just all in at this point with Will Hill and the Department 19 novels. Another awesome installment! In a sense, it's THE installment we've been waiting for! I kept envisioning what I was reading constantly. The suits in Hollywood need to take notice and bring these novels to the big screen. They're primed for it. Just continues with the action, drama and twists. You will find yourself continuing to be invested in these characters. If you're jumping in to the series for the first time...GO BACK and start with the 1st novel. Enjoy the novels as they should be, an experience. Already have the next book. Have that review for you all soon. Happy reading guys!

Tired of the same old boring novels that hold little excitement, no surprises and predictable characters? Well, this book is for you! if you love lots of page turning action and a plotline that is out of this world, BUY THIS BOOK. I am an avid reader and I am so grateful to my friend in Ireland who recommended this series. You won't be sorry! Thanks, Will Hill, for these fantastic novels!

Another great book in an excellent, action-packed series!

All four books have been terrific! This one like the others had no boring periods. No periods when my attention wandered.

Not much to say about ZERO HOUR because if you read Will Hill, this is another one of his excellent novels. I finished it in 2 days.

Loved the book! Will Hill is an amazing author that rights his book in a way that it's so believable that if I didn't know any better I would think every single word of it true. And I reckon an author with that skill and ability should get credit from not just the people who read his books but from every body who reads books and should be up there with the greats like Stephen king or J.K Rowling.

It's an awesome book peoples will love it. Spoiler alert: the book ends in a cliff hanger. Can't wait to read the last one!!!

Quick shipping at a great price. I was mildly disappointed that it had not been described as a former library copy. Otherwise a very good experience.

When I read the first Department 19 book, I stated that it was the best action horror that I had ever read. And then Will Hill raised the goddamn bar with his second book, The Rising. Then, like the great Sergey Bubka, he teased us by raising that bar even more for Battle Lines, and as spectators we were left wondering whether Will Hill had it in him to continue doing so. All we could do was watch and wait. And now Zero Hour is upon us, and yes, that bar has gone up again and Hill has sailed over it.Before I continue, a word of warning. This is the fourth book in the series and as such this review will contain spoilers for previous books, so if you haven't read them then please do not read on. Secondly, I'm not sure how much I will be saying in this review anyway - with every new book that comes along in this series it feels more and more wrong to mention plot points in a review. Seriously - if you want to know what happens then just read the book.As a quick reminder, the end of Battle Lines left us with 46 days till Zero Hour. Things had not gone well for Jamie and his team (understatement). Jamie's friends had also gone through hell, whether physically or emotionally, both in the UK and, for Larissa, over in the US. And then there is the matter of Julian Carpenter - alive and well, and back on British soil, but as a high security prisoner whose identity is known only to one or two people.Zero Hour picks up the story with seven days till Zero Hour, and things are beginning to look very desperate indeed for the members of Department 19. The breakthrough they have been hoping and praying for just hasn't materialised. Kate and the Intelligence Division have data that predicts nothing but disaster of apocalyptic proportions for the world's non-vampire population. Larissa is wracked with guilt as she strongly suspects that Julian Carpenter is alive, but she can't find a way of telling Jamie. Jamie himself is still reeling from the events of Battle Lines, and also struggling with the growing realisation that his girlfriend is one of the most powerful vampires in the world, so where does that leave him, a mere mortal human? Matt Browning has been working night and day, desperately trying to find a cure for vampirism, but so far his efforts have all been in vain. And then there is Valentin Rusmanov, now allied with Department 19, but long absent, off on his own search for an answer to their prayers.So, all things considered, things aren't looking good for the human race.And then things get worse.On finishing Zero Hour I sent Will Hill a Twitter message, congratulating him on what I thought to be his best book yet, and I told him it was his Empire Strikes Back. There are two reasons for this: the first is that the first two three quarters of the book are a gradual build up to the climactic final quarter (more about that in a minute). The second was the feeling you get, as you turn the pages, that things just can't get any worse. And yet then they do. And again, you think, oh well, at least things can't get any worse. And then they do, again. And this continues again and again as the plot progresses, and all of the time you know that every crappy little thing that is thrown at the D19 team is only a precursor to everything hitting the fan when Dracula finally reaches full strength. There were times when I felt slightly sick with nerves reading this as I have become so invested in these characters over the past few years. Especially given what happened to Shaun Turner in The Rising: we already know that Will Hill has the balls to kill off key characters.So how could things possibly get worse for the D19 team? Well, I've thought long and hard about what I should or shouldn't reveal, and I decided that I would expand on one key plot point only. Simply put, word gets out. We sort of guessed this would happen following the events of Battle Lines, but now we are talking worldwide media coverage, social media and YouTube, and all the grief that that brings with it: protests (by both vampires and humans); condemnation of the work of D19 by the press; accusations of ethnic cleansing. Not exactly what the team needs to keep them focused as they prepare to do battle with their greatest foe and the biggest ever threat to mankind. However, as far as things getting worse for the team, this is only one of them, and in some ways fairly minor considering some of the other big reveals that come in this book.Just now I said I would mention more about the climactic final quarter of the book. However, before we reach that point I want to touch on three moments in the first three quarters that pretty much took my breath away. The first was a major fist-pump moment which happens just as the clock has ticked over to two days until Zero Hour. I'm not saying any more other than it sort of relates to my favourite character in the series and it's nice to see justice done. I reckon Will Hill took great delight in writing this particular scene. The other two key moments happened within twenty pages of each other and I actually uttered a word that I can't and won't repeat here when I read it and I felt as if I had been punched in the gut. And if that wasn't enough, twenty pages later I was left with more than a few tears in my eyes as Hill tore out my heart and crushed it. Will Hill has balls of steel and does not hold back in this book!And then there is the climactic final portion. Seriously, if you have any energy left when you get to the chapter titled "The Calm Before" I suggest you put the book down, go outside and get a breath of fresh air. Perhaps treat yourself to a bar of chocolate and a can of red Coke (or whatever your beverage of choice happens to be) because hell, you are going to need it! The final part of this book is fast, furious, bloody, violent, and definitely takes no prisoners. It's a no-holds-barred climax that comes with one rule only: kill or be killed, and should come with a theme park style warning about readers with heart conditions, etc.You also need to make sure that you have plenty of time to finish the book, as once you start reading this chapter you will find it impossible to put the book down until you have reached the final chapter, more than 100 pages later.With the fifth and final book titled Darkest Night I have a feeling that things are probably going to get even worse before this series comes to an end.

I was a bit annoyed with the first book, because the heroes were so fixed in their hatred of vampires, where as we, the readers, saw vampires as good and bad and often an uneasy mix of both. By this book it is clear that Mr Hill understood what he was doing and was challenging the readers to disagree with the consensus.Though the hero of the book is Jamie Carpenter, for me, the stand out character is Larissa. She is the reason I pre-order Mr Hill's books. He has created a sidekick/friend/lover who stands out in the field. And he keeps her and Jamie human, even though she hasn't been from day one.This is a great adventure story, a great fantasy, an evolving series that grows in stature with every book published. This is the best so far, but I expect the next book to be better.

Smart, incisive and beautifully, if disturbingly descriptive at times, this book answers questions raised in the earlier stories and introduces new ones for adventures yet to come. It moves through at a lightning fast pace combining the arrival of unexpected acts of heroism from unlikely characters with enjoyably predictable"Step-ups" from those we already love. Then, behind it all, the reader is never allowed to forget the ever present catastrophe that the rise of DRACULA represents. SIMPLY PUT ... IT'S BRILLIANT!!

This is my favourite collection of books. They're masterfully written, the cliffhangers make me want to tear my throat out. I can associate with many characters, especially Valentin (New idol), the gory details and satisfying descriptions give the story a dark realism despite the fantasy nature. If you hated twilight, like Prince of Thorns and adore gruesome fights. Read this damn book.

I have followed the series right up to the end of this novel. This has all the same 'unputdownabilty' of the previous books on the series and kept my interest until the end. I imagine that we will see more on this series on the future. I gather this book is in the publisher's children's section. I would rate it as young adult - although I am myself a pensioner - because of language and description of violent scenes.